Whom are You Seeking? John 20:1-18 A couple of weeks ago I had a very bad day in the shop. As some of you know I make chairs in my spare time; I make Windsor chairs. It s something of a serious hobby. I like to remind my wife that making chairs is cheaper than therapy. Sometimes I still need therapy, but I normally only need woodworking. One of the magical moments in the making of a chair is when you glue the legs into the seat. Once you glue and wedge the legs into the seat, there is no turning back; those legs are NEVER coming out of that seat (at least not intact) because it s a tapered tenon secured with glue and wedges. A couple of weeks ago I was working on a chair. When I glued the legs into the seat, something didn t seem right. A couple hours later I went back out into the shop and looked at that chair; something still didn t seem right. You may not be able to tell from the photo, but it turns out that I had glued the legs/undercarriage on backwards; the front legs were in back and the back legs were in front. The front is supposed to be higher than the back, but the front was lower than the back. When I realized what I had done, my heart sank because I had probably invested about 25 hours on that chair. I doubt any of you tend to catastrophize in situations like this, but I do. Realizing I had wasted 25 hours of work, I started calling myself all sorts of unflattering names. I thought about taking out my sledge hammer; I thought about buzzing it through the table saw. But fortunately my twenty-three-year-old son happened to be present when I realized what I had done; he said, Dad, why don t you go work out and deal with this later... which is what I did. Can you think of a time when you were in that state of mind, when you felt hopeless because you d wasted time and made a mess of things? It might be something trivial like a chair or a recipe that you botched. But it might be something significant - like a relationship or a career. You might be thinking of your entire life: How is it possible that I ve wasted my life chasing things that don t satisfy? We ve all come here this morning with regrets, failures, and grief. Be encouraged by the fact that on the very first Easter morning, the original followers of Christ were in this state of mind - filled with grief and guilt and hopelessness. They had to be wondering if they had wasted the past three years following Jesus around Galilee and Samaria and Judea. After Jesus was dead and buried, they had to wonder whether anything Jesus had said was true. It sure didn t look like the Kingdom was at hand (as He claimed).
Easter 2018, 4/1/18 2 This is one of the things that makes the gospels compelling: they are so very honest and true to life. The gospels are not propaganda writings that try to make the original followers of Jesus look better than they were. The account we ll consider this morning, John 20, is very honest about the doubt and the grief and hopelessness that the original disciples were experiencing. Their relief and their hope came from realizing that Jesus was raised from the dead. That is our hope as well. You probably won t leave here with a neat and tidy solution to your problems; but if you leave with the risen Christ, you can rest assured that in the context of that relationship He will address those problems in His ways and in His time. The Experience of Peter and John (John 20:1-10) Before talking about himself and Peter, John first mentions Mary Magdalene; we don t know as much about Mary as we d like. All four gospel writers mention her experiencing Jesus after His resurrection. The only other time she s mentioned is in Luke 8:2. There we learn that Jesus had delivered her from seven demons. Mary had a deep loyalty to Jesus because of the compassion He had shown her. 1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. On the first day of the week (Sunday), Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark. Because of that detail Christians/churches have held Easter sunrise services down through the centuries. [Our Easter gift to you is NOT having a sunrise service.] Luke s account mentions that Mary came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared for Jesus body. Mary wasn t expecting Jesus to be resurrected; she was expecting to find the lifeless body of Jesus when she got to the tomb. What she found was that the stone had been taken away from the tomb and that the body was gone. She assumed foul play (verse 2). 2 So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him. Several times in this gospel John refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He wasn t implying that Jesus loved him more than the others or that he was Jesus favorite. I think John was saying that Jesus love for him was the dominant characteristic of their relationship. Whatever the case, John s nickname for himself was the disciple whom Jesus loved. Can you imagine thinking of yourself that way? Hi, I m Steve, greatly loved by Jesus... Mary s comment confirms that she didn t believe Jesus had been raised from the dead: They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him. She probably thought that grave robbers had taken Jesus body.
Easter 2018, 4/1/18 3 3 So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. 4 The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; 5 and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. 6 And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the facecloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. John arrived and only looked into the tomb. But when Peter arrived he blew past John and went into the tomb. There he saw the linen wrappings for the body as well as the face-cloth rolled up and lying by itself (something grave robbers wouldn t have done). Verse 8 is very significant: 8 So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. When John saw the grave clothes and no body, he believed that Jesus had been raised from the dead. What Jesus had been telling them clicked : He had to go to Jerusalem, be killed, and then rise again on the third day. We aren t really told whether or not Peter also believed (Luke 24:12 is significant). But John believed. Significantly, however, he believed before his understanding of Scripture was complete. 9 For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. 10 So the disciples went away again to their own homes. The significant thing here is that John believed Jesus had been raised from the dead, even though he didn t yet understand how this could be reconciled with the Hebrew Scriptures. This was a big deal because Jesus said over and over again that His life was the fulfillment of Scripture; eventually the disciples needed to understand how a crucified and resurrected Messiah could be reconciled with Scripture. And yet John believed in the resurrection while he still had significant gaps in his understanding of Scripture. This was the foundation of the rest of his life - believing that Jesus was raised from the dead. The resurrection vindicated everything Jesus said and did, including His statement that He came to give His life as a ransom for many. I recently read the account of a man named Mark Clark who is now a pastor in Vancouver. He was raised in a family without any faith. Actually his father was antagonistic to Christianity. He wanted to name his first son Matthew, but didn t want it spelled like Matthew in the Bible, so he spelled it with one t - Mathew. Mark was the second son; he wasn t sure if his dad saw the irony in that. When he was nine years old he went to a summer camp that talked about Jesus. Clark said he was fascinated by the idea of God, but not enough to begin attending church or reading the Bible. And so he would go to came every summer and hear about Jesus, but he d return home to a very different life. At age 8 or 9 he started using drugs; he
Easter 2018, 4/1/18 4 began stealing to pay for drugs (from cars, stores, purses of his friends mothers, etc.). In 9th grade he almost died of an overdose. On top of it all, he developed a rather severe case of obsessive-compulsive disorder with all sorts of behaviors that were destructive personally and socially. He had a very chaotic, confusing childhood. Clark s dad died when he was 15 years old; 18 people came to his funeral. As he stood over his dad s casket, his mind was flooded with questions like, Where is my dad now? What is my dad now? What do I believe about God... about science... about heaven and hell? What do I believe about eternity and morality? At age 17 Clark met a guy named Chris, a former drug dealer who had become a follower of Christ. Since he was on the road to becoming a drug dealer himself, Clark was intrigued by the guy whose life had been transformed by a relationship with Jesus. He says that Chris challenged me to examine my doubts, read the Bible, pray, and think about the implications of what I believed about life and God. In that crucible, I knew I would either lose the small amount of faith I had possessed since my days at summer camp or it would explode and change me. Basically that year Clark put his faith in Christ and entered into a life-long journey of seeking God and the answers to all of his questions. The thing that seems most relevant in light of today s passage is that he was like John at the tomb of Jesus that Sunday morning: not all of his questions were answered, but he believed in Jesus anyway; he believed that Jesus had died for his sin and risen from the dead. Over the next several years he studied the Bible in community with others and wrestled with issues like the reliability of the Bible, the dark history of the church (judgment, violence, hypocrisy), how a loving God could allow so much evil and suffering in the world, etc. His healing from all the trauma of his childhood began when he entered into a relationship with the living Christ. That is always the foundation of our healing, our relief, our hope. This means that you don t have to have all your questions answered before becoming a follower of Christ. You may need to have some of your questions answered; you may need to know that there are Christians who think about your questions and who have valid answers to your questions. You don t need to know how Jesus is going to heal your brokenness or how He is going to address all your regrets. But since He was raised from the dead, know that He is willing and able. If you are convinced that Jesus died for your sins and rose on the third day, you can trust in Him begin walking with Him in community with others. In the context of that relationship He will address your brokenness. The Experience of Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18) Back to John 20. After running from the tomb and informing Peter and John that Jesus body was gone, she made her way back to the tomb.
Easter 2018, 4/1/18 5 11 But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. In the Bible angels are messengers from God; they sometime took human form, but often have a radiance that makes clear that they are heavenly beings. The appearance of angels suggests that God had been responsible for what had happened. The question the angels ask in verse 13 is probably meant as a challenge. 13 And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him. 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. There are several good reasons why Mary didn t immediately recognize Jesus: 1) it was still dark, 2) she was weeping (and it s hard to see through tears), and 3) she thought Jesus was dead (so whoever she was seeing, it wasn t Jesus)! Jesus asks the same question the angels asked, implying that she actually shouldn t be weeping on that morning. 15 Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away. Jesus asked questions to surface the true desires of people s hearts. The second question, Whom are you seeking? Jesus isn t merely asking for the name of the person Mary is seeking. In the larger context of the gospel of John, Jesus is asking Mary to consider the identity of the Messiah she is seeking. Mary, are you seeking the lifeless body of the man whose career ended at the cross? Or are you seeking the One who taught with authority, performed miracles, died for your sins, and then rose in power and victory on the third day, never to die again? There s a sense in which Jesus asks each of us the same question this morning: Whom are you seeking? You may not have a great answer to that question; maybe you aren t sure why you re here this morning. Mary didn t have a great answer to Jesus question. After she recognized Him, she would have given the answer, You, Jesus, the risen Lord! Mary couldn t see beyond her own grief. Apparently Jesus had been buried in a tomb in a garden; Mary assumes that the only person who would be there before sunrise was the gardener. So she asks where Jesus body had been taken so that she can take Him away for a proper burial. In response, we see in verse 16 that Jesus speaks a single word: 16 Jesus said to her, Mary! She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, Rabboni! (which means, Teacher).
Easter 2018, 4/1/18 6 Back in John 10 Jesus had declared, I am the good shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep (10:11). As the good shepherd, Jesus said that he calls his own sheep by name... and the sheep follow him because they know his voice (10:3-4). When Mary heard Jesus speak her name, she knew that He was the good shepherd risen from the dead. She knew that He had conquered death for her! 17 Jesus said to her, Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God. Apparently Mary clung to Jesus because she was afraid that if she let go she might never see Him again. 18 Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that He had said these things to her. Read the rest of the chapter when you can. Jesus appears to the disciples (minus Thomas) and shows them the scars in His hands and His side. Thomas declared that he wouldn t believe unless he could see and touch the place where the nails had been. Eight days later Jesus stood in their midst and Thomas also believed. Jesus said this to him: 29 Jesus said to him, Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed. The original disciples got visible proof that Jesus had been raised from the dead. But everyone else (including us) need to believe without seeing. We believe based on the firsthand accounts of those who saw the risen Christ. When we believe, Jesus calls us blessed. Conclusion. Do you remember my riveting account of the very bad day I had in my shop a couple of weeks ago? I want to tell you what happened to that chair because it s sort of a parable. I came back to that chair the next day. Here s what I did. I turned it over and cut off the legs beneath the seat. Next I drilled new holes for the legs:
Easter 2018, 4/1/18 7 Then I used a reamer to taper the holes for the legs: Then I turned new legs, glued them into the seat carefully... About 20 hours later I had a chair ready to be finished: From a distance, you would never know that chair had issues. But if you look closely, you can see the scars:
Easter 2018, 4/1/18 8 Honestly, this chair is more satisfying to me than a chair I glued up correctly the first time. They say that a good woodworker is one who knows how to fix his mistakes. And a good shepherd is One who knows how to lead wandering sheep to still waters and green pastures, One who knows how to protect defenseless sheep from enemies. Everybody looks good from a distance. If I didn t know any of your stories I would think that you never had any problems. Seriously, you all look great this morning. But if you let people get close to you, they will see your scars. If you allow Jesus to be your good shepherd, you scars won t scream condemnation; they will scream redemption. Your scars will be evidence of the grace of God in your lives. That was the case for Peter. He had denied Jesus three times, producing shame and self-condemnation. But we read in John 21 that Jesus restored him, giving him a new assignment. Now when we look at Peter s denials, we don t see condemnation; we see redemption and evidence of Jesus grace in his life. The same can be true for each of us. If you enter into a relationship with the risen Christ, He will redeem the things in your life that seem like an absolute waste. Your scars will be a reminder that Jesus is alive, that Jesus is still the good shepherd who calls His sheep by name.